As we pointed out recently, the Browns turn 70 years old this year. So in celebration of that, we’ve put together a list – a unique one at that — of the top 70 players in team history.

 

Indeed, this list may not be what you think it is, with players from all the different eras lumped into one big group. That’s already been done.

 

Thus, we’re going to do it differently. We’ve put together three eras:

 

*1946-64 – The 19-season stretch from the Browns’ inception to the year they won their last league championship.

 

*1965-95 – Picking up after the championship season and covering the remainder of the original franchise’s 50-year stay in Cleveland. This is a span of 31 seasons.

 

*1999-2015 – The first 17 seasons of the expansion era.

 

The Browns have played 67 seasons. This season will be No. 68. That’s because, of course, they were held in trust by the NFL for three seasons, 1996-98, after the original franchise bolted to Baltimore and a new stadium was being built for the re-born Browns.

 

The 70 players we pick will be broken down this way:

 

*30 players from the era of 1946-64.

 

*30 players from the era of 1965-95.

 

*10 players from the era of 1999-2015.

 

This was the only fair way to do it. The other two periods in team history are longer – and have been so much more successful – than the expansion era. The expansion era can’t be placed on an even plane with those other eras. That would ridiculous and disrespectful to all those great players and teams from the earlier times.

 

What this means is that there are some very good – and very deserving players – from the two eras of the original franchise who, unfortunately, didn’t make the cut. Simply put, there were better players, and they were only 30 slots to be filled in each era. We’ll have two stories – one for each era – detailing those who were left on the outside looking in.

 

This also means that, in many respects, this is not really a list of the top 70 players in team history, regardless of the eras in which they played. If it were, then there wouldn’t be even 10 players from the nightmarish expansion era, and many players from the earlier two eras who were omitted, would be included.

 

But if we did that and all but ignored the expansion era, a lot of younger fans who don’t remember much, or any, of the original franchise’s stay might feel left out and as such become disinterested and not read the series. We don’t want to do that. Young fans count – a whole heckuva lot – and we want to include them always. They are the future fans.

 

The series will start tomorrow, July 9, and run daily through Sunday, July 17, which will take us to just less than two weeks from the start of training camp. We’ll begin with the expansion era and work backward in time.

 

Hope you enjoy the articles.

 

I’m sure there will be some very different opinions from some of you. We’d love to hear from those of you.